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It's a shorthand code many-many-many people understand. Heck, I was in a high school counseling office the other day and saw a Muppet's poster that had each character and their alignment underneath. I find it great for new players, as it gives them a way to express their character's motive -...

I know you don't think so, but I am curious as to how many you have actually run. I have run Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat. I didn't need to change a thing except when the players decided to follow a different path. I needed to do my work, and know that if my group of six...

We haven't played it yet. We are waiting for the actual book to arrive from our backing. But I am very curious as to how the montage system plays out. It sounds cool. Also, like many others, I am excited to see how combat works, especially with how movement, pushing, and pulling play a more...

I don't either. That is why they write adventures, and often, older gamers encourage inexperienced DMs who are having difficulties, to run a "module" or adventure path. Those do wonders as far as honing skills and learning how to build encounters.

Yes, exceptions, when limited, are not always a fair counterargument. And you are right, it is part art. In my opinion, almost 50%. There are so many variables, as the D20 can be a bit swingy. This is especially true when you start adding in saving throws and conditions and higher-level damage...

I will say this, when I say by gut, I am not guessing. I have years of experience, my number sense has always been a solid skill, and I am also a player, so I knew my group's abilities well. I believe once a DM has those three things, they can "predict" the combat pretty well.

4e's system was the bomb. It worked great! I had a much easier time building close encounters, either with the system or by gut. It was awesome!

I think we all know how you feel about 5e's encounter and CR system. ;) But you have had some god-awful luck with DMs. I have had many DMs that can scale those encounters (the day prior once they know how many players are joining, which players are joining, etc.) without difficulty. When I...

Oh, my bad. Sorry for not reading more closely. And wow, that is even more cause to see it as odd. I get it, many campaigns fail to end. We had a fantastic 5e campaign one time, and that just fizzled out. It was sad, as the group was great, we all still wanted to play, and the DM and world were...

That is odd. I've seen both, but most of the ones I've seen start at level 1. Just goes to show how we all have different experiences.

I agree. One of my favorite campaigns was one we were TPKed. Our new characters were set 50 years into the future - and man, was it grim. The DM showed us that failing had consequences. Our old characters and any related NPC in their backstories were all tragically seen through the new...

I am going to argue against this because two hours in movie time in twenty hours in story-telling time. Think, book to movie. Hundreds of pages can sometimes equal one section or episode. Again, sorry to disagree, but this is not modern. The reaction to the of the GM to the players has been in...

Oh wow! That is rough and a bummer. Sorry to hear that. Hopefully, your gaming group now is more fun! And yes, it is interesting how powerful non-examples can be to our learning process - especially for GMing.

This was always the thing for me - no plot. I always tried to tie some of the locales together, this way something would be over-arching. It's that, or you lean really heavily into the character's story arc. So, I agree, but kind of disagree. I really don't know to tell you the truth.

I am confused. That is the definition of an RPG. Players make choices, and then the GM reacts to those choices. The DM's Guide and PHB literally state this. I am sorry, but I don't share the negative cinema viewpoint that many do. Yes, there are always plot holes, and yes, there are always...

I was responding to the definition I was given. And in that definition, there is no railroad or linear that I have seen. Per your example, did that DM let you sneak by the guards as opposed to fighting them? That could "impact the course of events," Particularly if he had the guards hear a...

I agree with you whole-heartedly. That is how it should work. But in my experience, it never is. Yes, improv is always needed for RPGs, especially the likes of D&D. And yes, sometimes it leads to fun moments. That said, it is merely happenstance that helped create that moment. It is almost never...

Do you see how you already set the pretense that not all gnolls are evil. They had a relationship, albeit strained, but it wasn't one of only "razed buildings, gnawed corpses, and befouled land." So right away, as GM, you have given yourself an out. My argument was why an exclusively evil...

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I am not saying your experience was this, but whenever I have seen something like that, it was because it was a GM that played improv style. Loved putting details in that didn't matter because it's just what they were thinking of in the moment. Used red herrings because they hadn't thought...